ALBERT

Description: In coupled human-environment systems where well established and proven general theories are often lacking cluster analysis provides the possibility to discover regularities – a first step in empirically based theory building. The aim of this report is to share the experiences and knowledge on cluster analysis we gained in several applications in this realm helping to avoid typical problems and pitfalls. In our description of issues and methods we will highlight well-known main-stream methods as well as promising new developments, referring to pertinent literature for further information, thus offering also some potential new insights for the more experienced. The following aspects are discussed in detail: data-selection and pre-treatment, selection of a distance measure in the data space, selection of clustering method, performing clustering (parameterizing the algorithm(s), determining the number of clusters etc.) and the interpretation and evaluation of results. We link our description – as far as tools for performing the analysis are concerned - to the R software environment and its associated cluster analysis packages. We have used this public domain software, together with own tailor-made extensions, documented in the appendix.

Description: A methodology to assess future development in patterns of vulnerability is presented which can support the assessment of global policies with regard to their impacts on specific vulnerabilities on the regional or local scale. Patterns of vulnerability, formalized by vulnerability profiles (e.g. for the livelihoods of dryland smallholder farmers) were investigated under different consistent indicator scenarios reflecting different global policies. After unfolding several principal possibilities to do such an analysis of temporal change in vulnerability patterns we could conclude that the concept of “Clusters of Change” (CoCs) is the most straight forward and promising approach. The main arguments are that each interpretation has necessarily to consider both, the starting situation and it’s change over time (”poor and heavily improving”, ”rich and stagnating” etc.). This implies that we are looking for patterns which represent typical combinations of present states AND expected future changes. An application of the CoC-concept to the drylands vulnerability patterns considering the indicator set for the present situation and the same indicator set for 2050 under a baseline scenario was performed as a test. Comparison of the present vulnerability cluster partition with the spatial distribution of the CoCs revealed that most of these clusters are separated into an improving and a deteriorating part which shows where winners and losers of the baseline scenario are – an interesting result which illustrates the appropriateness of the CoC – method. To explore the potential of CoCs for the dryland vulnerability we applied the method to two different sets of scenarios until 2050: a baseline vs. Climate policy scenario (OECD, 2012) and a ”policy first” scenario vs. ”security first” scenario (UNEP, 2007). The first one serves as an example for a policy assessment while the second compares the vulnerability consequences of two scenarios based on different story-lines of further global development. The main conclusion to be drawn from these calculations is that the CoCs are rather insensitive with regard to the small differences between the scenarios. Regarding the first set of scenarios the relatively short time horizon of relevant influences of climate policies on climate change impacts and several indicators which are not influenced at all generate only a very small difference. The only significant change in the resulting vulnerability profiles was in the values of change in water scarcity: it was lower for all profiles in the climate policy case. The second set of scenarios is not directly related to policy decisions but to different global story-lines which deviate stronger. This resulted in an increasing cluster number from 4 (policy first) to 5 (security first) clusters, about 20% of the pixels changing cluster membership, 3 clusters showing the same spatial extent for both scenarios but the 4th cluster (“policy first”) “losing” India which generates a separate cluster in the “security first” scenario. This allows for the interpretation that a further development according to the “security first”-storyline compared to the “policy first”-storyline would make a difference particularly for India. Closer inspection of the respective profile shows a qualitatively different situation indicating increased vulnerability compared to the “policy first” scenario where India shares one cluster with e.g., Northern Africa.

Description: While deforestation represents an obvious ecosystem change, forest degradation is often more difficult to discern or quantify, but it impacts anumber of ecosystem functions which are vital for biodiversity and climate feedbacks. In the Brazilian Amazon, land-use changes increasefire occurrence, especially in fragmented forests close to managed land. We used remote sensing imagery to estimate the extent and impact of forest fires in degraded tropical rain-forest in the Brazilian Legal Amazon between 2007 and 2010and examinedland-use establishing in degraded areas. The trends in degraded area vs. burned area were different. Even though degradation increased one year after a high fire year, there wasnospatialoverlap, which pointsto other causes for degradation. Up to 11% of the degraded area was burned in the same year, playing escaping fires from managed and deforested lands a significant role in degradation by fire. Eighty-fourpercent of 2007s degraded area remained forest one year later, whereas the rest was identified as deforestation, secondary vegetation or pasture.Three years after degradation, 80% remained forest, the proportion of deforested area decreased and areas in regeneration after being deforested increased. Monitoring of forest degradation across tropical forests is critical for developing land management policies and for carbon stocks/emissions estimation.

Description: ‘Transgovernance: Advancing Sustainability Governance’ analyses what implications recent and ongoing changes in the relations between politics, science and media – together characterized as the emergence of a knowledge democracy – may have for governance for sustainable development, on global and other levels of societal decision making, and vice versa: How can the discussion on sustainable development contribute to a knowledge democracy? How can concepts such as second modernity, reflexivity, configuration theory, (meta)governance theory and cultural theory contribute to a ‘transgovernance’ approach which goes beyond mainstream sustainability governance? This volume presents contributions from various angles: international relations, governance and metagovernance theory, (environmental) economics and innovation science. It offers challenging insights regarding institutions and transformation processes, and into the paradigms behind contemporary sustainability governance. This book gives the sustainability governance debate a new context. It transforms classical questions into new options for societal decision making and identifies starting points and strategies aimed at effective governance of transitions to sustainability.

Description: The concept of boundary work has been put forward as an analytical approach towards the study of interactions between science and policy. While the concept has been useful as a case-study approach, there are several weaknesses and constraints when using the concept in a more systemic analysis of the interactions between knowledge production and sustainable development decision-making at the international level, such as its inability to capture the diversity of institutions involved in such boundary work. Another inability involves a lack of conceptualisation of the impacts of the specific conditions of intergovernmental decision-making, such as rules for representation and the mode of negotiation. This chapter suggests complementing the concept of boundary work with a configuration approach based on a two-dimensional conceptualisation of the boundary space in international decision-making that allows the positioning of institutions with regard to their degree of politicisation and their position in terms of national and regional representation. Such an approach could be a useful guide in the further conceptualisation and application of the boundary concept.

Description: Hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) is an aqueous-phase route to produce carbon materials using biomass or biomass-derived precursors. In this paper, a comprehensive physicochemical and textural characterization of HTC materials obtained using four different precursors, namely, xylose, glucose, sucrose, and starch, is presented. The development of porosity in the prepared HTC materials as a function of thermal treatment (under an inert atmosphere) was specifically monitored using N2 and CO2 sorption analysis. The events taking place during the thermal treatment process were studied by a combined thermogravimetric/infrared (TGA-IR) measurement. Interestingly, these inexpensive biomass-derived carbon materials show good selectivity for CO2 adsorption over N2 (CO2/N2 selectivity of 20 at 273 K, 1 bar and 1:1 gas composition). Furthermore, the elemental composition, morphologies, degree of structural order, surface charge, and functional groups are also investigated.

Description: The recognition of soils and their functions by the public and, in particular, the planning community isgenerally poor. However, conversion of soils to urban uses is occurring at an unprecedented rate dueto an increasing share of the population living in urban areas and changing lifestyles. Urban planners,developers and planning agencies allocate urban lands to varying uses but land use decisions aregenerally not based on soil information as urban growth is managed predominantly for economicdevelopment. However, urban areas must also deal with challenges such as demographic change,urban densification, climate change and infrastructure provision. Thus, managing urban sustainabilityhas to include ecological aside economic, cultural, and political dimensions. Urban developmentneeds to be managed to minimize negative impacts and maximize environmental quality. Policydecisions towards maximizing short-term economic benefits must be balanced by decisions towardssustainable use and management of urban soils as urban land use has long-term consequences. Therecognition of soils by the planning community can particularly be improved by highlighting the valueof urban soil functions for the well-being of urban dwellers. This approach was recommended at thedialogue session ’Urbanization: Challenges to Soil Management‘ during the first Global Soil Week2012 in Berlin, Germany. Further suggestions how to raise the awareness about urban soils and howto deal with challenges regarding their management will be presented.

Description: Temporal and spatial patterns in eastern North Atlantic sea-surface temperatures (SST) were reconstructed for marine isotope stage (MIS) 11c using a submeridional transect of five sediment cores. The SST reconstructions are based on planktic foraminiferal abundances and alkenone indices, and are supported by benthic and planktic stable isotope measurements, as well as by ice-rafted debris content in polar and middle latitudes. Additionally, the larger-scale dynamics of the precipitation regime over northern Africa and the western Mediterranean region was evaluated from iron concentrations in marine sediments off NW Africa and planktic δ 13C in combination with analysis of planktic foraminiferal abundances down to the species level in the Mediterranean Sea. Compared to the modern situation, it is revealed that during entire MIS 11c sensu stricto (ss), i.e., between 420 and 398ka according to our age models, a cold SST anomaly in the Nordic seas co-existed with a warm SST anomaly in the middle latitudes and the subtropics, resulting in steeper meridional SST gradients than during the Holocene. Such a SST pattern correlates well with a prevalence of a negative mode of the modern North Atlantic Oscillation. We suggest that our scenario might partly explain the longer duration of wet conditions in the northern Africa during MIS 11c compared to the Holocene.

Description: The dynamics of the 18O(3P) + 32O2 isotope exchange reaction were studied using crossed atomic and molecular beams at collision energies (Ecoll) of 5.7 and 7.3 kcal/mol, and experimental results were compared with quantum statistical (QS) and quasi-classical trajectory (QCT) calculations on the O3(X1A’) potential energy surface (PES) of Babikov et al. [D. Babikov, B. K. Kendrick, R. B. Walker, R. T. Pack, P. Fleurat-Lesard, and R. Schinke, J. Chem. Phys.118, 6298 (2003)]. In both QS and QCT calculations, agreement with experiment was markedly improved by performing calculations with the experimental distribution of collision energies instead of fixed at the average collision energy. At both collision energies, the scattering displayed a forward bias, with a smaller bias at the lower Ecoll. Comparisons with the QS calculations suggest that 34O2 is produced with a non-statistical rovibrational distribution that is hotter than predicted, and the discrepancy is larger at the lower Ecoll. If this underprediction of rovibrational excitation by the QS method is not due to PES errors and/or to non-adiabatic effects not included in the calculations, then this collision energy dependence is opposite to what might be expected based on collision complex lifetime arguments and opposite to that measured for the forward bias. While the QCT calculations captured the experimental product vibrational energy distribution better than the QS method, the QCT results underpredicted rotationally excited products, overpredicted forward-bias and predicted a trend in the strength of forward-bias with collision energy opposite to that measured, indicating that it does not completely capture the dynamic behavior measured in the experiment. Thus, these results further underscore the need for improvement in theoretical treatments of dynamics on the O3(X1A’) PES and perhaps of the PES itself in order to better understand and predict non-statistical effects in this reaction and in the formation of ozone (in which the intermediate O3 * complex is collisionally stabilized by a third body). The scattering data presented here at two different collision energies provide important benchmarks to guide these improvements.

Description: Institutions for biodiversity governance are located at the interface of human and ecological systems. The analysis of such institutions is challenged due to addressing a multitude of complex interactions between these two systems occurring at different natural scales and levels of human organization. Due to this complexity, empirical analysis of biodiversity management often leads to context-specific explanations, providing little scope for comparative work or the development of more generalised, theory-based accounts. We aim at reducing complexity in understanding human-biodiversity relations, making cases comparable across sites, and propose that, in order to address complexity, we need a method of abstraction that leads to the development of a more structured analysis, based on selection of explanatory factors according to cconceptual models as well as empirical significance. We suggest that the stylisation of typical "resource use-perspectives" - the combination of typical transactions that are inextricably linked by the interest of the actor - can be a useful method for realizing appropriate model selection. In this paper, we provide an account of how use-perspectives can be developed and to what kind of analysis they can contribute, using the example of agrobiodiversity in grain as seed, food, or genetic material.

Description: Abstract. It has been claimed for more than a century that atmospheric new particle formation is primarily influenced by the presence of sulfuric acid. However, the activation process of sulfuric acid related clusters into detectable particles is still an unresolved topic. In this study we focus on the PARADE campaign measurements conducted during August/September 2011 at Mt Kleiner Feldberg in central Germany. During this campaign a set of radicals, organic and inorganic compounds and oxidants and aerosol properties were measured or calculated. We compared a range of organic and inorganic nucleation theories, evaluating their ability to simulate measured particle formation rates at 3 nm in diameter (J3) for a variety of different conditions. Nucleation mechanisms involving only sulfuric acid tentatively captured the observed noon-time daily maximum in J3, but displayed an increasing difference to J3 measurements during the rest of the diurnal cycle. Including large organic radicals, i.e. organic peroxy radicals (RO2) deriving from monoterpenes and their oxidation products, in the nucleation mechanism improved the correlation between observed and simulated J3. This supports a recently proposed empirical relationship for new particle formation that has been used in global models. However, the best match between theory and measurements for the site of interest was found for an activation process based on large organic peroxy radicals and stabilised Criegee intermediates (sCI). This novel laboratory-derived algorithm simulated the daily pattern and intensity of J3 observed in the ambient data. In this algorithm organic derived radicals are involved in activation and growth and link the formation rate of smallest aerosol particles with OH during daytime and NO3 during night-time. Because the RO2 lifetime is controlled by HO2 and NO we conclude that peroxy radicals and NO seem to play an important role for ambient radical chemistry not only with respect to oxidation capacity but also for the activation process of new particle formation. This is supposed to have significant impact of atmospheric radical species on aerosol chemistry and should be taken into account when studying the impact of new particles in climate feedback cycles.

Description: Variations in the poleward-directed Atlantic heat transfer was investigated over the past 135ka with special emphasis on the last and present interglacial climate development (Eemian and Holocene). Both interglacials exhibited very similar climatic oscillations during each preceding glacial terminations (deglacial TI and TII). Like TI, also TII has pronounced cold-warm-cold changes akin to events such as H1, Blling/Allerd, and the Younger Dryas. But unlike TI, the cold events in TII were associated with intermittent southerly invasions of an Atlantic faunal component which underscores quite a different water mass evolution in the Nordic Seas. Within the Eemian interglaciation proper, peak warming intervals were antiphased between the Nordic Seas and North Atlantic. Moreover, inferred temperatures for the Nordic Seas were generally colder in the Eemian than in the Holocene, and vice versa for the North Atlantic. A reduced intensity of Atlantic Ocean heat transfer to the Arctic therefore characterized the Eemian, requiring a reassessment of the actual role of the ocean-atmosphere system behind interglacial, but also, glacial climate changes.

Description: The use of fossil hydrocarbons in the energy and transport sectors is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions. It also ties our society to ever dwindling reserves. Synthetic fuels could play a crucial role in establishing a carbon neutral energy supply.

Description: The energy demand of the world is foreseen to be increased due to the improvements on the living standard of the developing countries and the development of the global economy. The increase in sustainability of the energy supply must be considered as a must to avoid spoiling natural resources for the next human generations and more dramatic effects such as the so-called global atmospheric warming. The utilization of CO2-free energy sources, as in the case of renewables, is one of the most promising ways to attain such objectives. Nevertheless, the massive energy production with such energy sources are far from being practically feasible in the short-medium term and an innovative solution should be put into practice for the CO2-free exploitation of the huge fossil fuel resources already available. This general assumption is also applicable to any energy carrier such as Hydrogen or electricity. In this case, an analysis is done of the Hydrogen production processes and the discussion of the need to develop a CO2-free production scheme like methane cracking is shown.

Description: Large point sources such as major population centers (MPCs) emit pollutants which can be deposited nearby or transported over long distances before deposition. We have used tracer simulations of aerosols emitted from MPCs worldwide to assess the fractions which are deposited at various distances away from their source location. Considering only source location, prevailing meteorology, and the aerosol size and solubility, we show that fine aerosol particles have a high potential to pollute remote regions. About half of the emitted mass of aerosol tracers with an ambient diameter ≤1.0 μm is typically deposited in regions more than 1000 km away from the source. Furthermore, using the Köppen-Geiger climate classification to categorize the sources into various climate classes we find substantial differences in the deposition potential between these classes. Tracers originating in arid regions show the largest remote deposition potentials, with values more than doubled compared to the smallest potentials from tracers in tropical regions. Seasonal changes in atmospheric conditions lead to variations in the remote deposition potentials. On average the remote deposition potentials in summer correspond to about 70-80% of the values in winter, with a large spread among the climate classes. For tracers from tropical regions the summer remote deposition values are only about 31% of the winter values, while they are about 95% for tracers from arid regions.

Description: In the basement, in an alcove that's almost a small room, stands a small wood stove. If it weren't on a pedestal, it would barely be a metre high; but even so it's small, almost cute. The wood from which it's made appears to be untreated; its whiteness is rustic, quaint, innocent. It takes a minute to realise what's wrong. A 'wood stove' should be a stove for burning wood - not one made of wood. It should make combustion possible without itself being combustible.

Description: Sustainable development is all over the place. The concept is broad and vague. The vagueness of the concept has a Janus face. It has been called a unifying concept because its vagueness breeds a consensus that might be utilised later on. Vagueness is an asset if it triggers action. On the other hand, if sustainable development is everything, maybe it is nothing… Although – or maybe because – the concept is vague, it has overwhelming appeal on political agendas, programmes and dialogues. The precautionary principle is the nucleus of a powerful moral imperative. The multidimensional nature of the concept, covering ecological, economic and social aspects of change relates to our needs for integration. Sustainable development as a concept bears a persuasive character. Actors of all kinds may contribute to it, citizens, enterprises, NGOs, governments et cetera. Thinking about the governance of sustainable development leads us to the recognition of a multi-level, multi-scale, multi-disciplinary character of the problematique. Moreover, the term development refers to change, to transitions and transformations. Governance of sustainable development therefore has to cope with complex dynamics. This chapter deals with the specific consequences of sustainability governance inside knowledge democracies. The concept of knowledge democracy sheds new light on the emerging relationships between politics, media and science. It shows how the emergence of participatory democracy besides representative democracy, the revolutionary rise of social media besides corporate media, the emergence of transdisciplinary trajectories besides classical disciplinary science lead to explosions of complex interactions. We will digress upon the variety of possible future variants of knowledge democracies, quiet and turbulent ones, in relation to the quest for sustainable development. Our main conclusion will be that strategies for sustainability may vary with the types of knowledge democracies around.

Description: In this study we compare the response of four state-of-the-art Earth system models to climate engineering under scenario G1 of two model intercomparison projects: GeoMIP (Geoengineering Model Intercomparison Project) and IMPLICC (EU project "Implications and risks of engineering solar radiation to limit climate change"). In G1, the radiative forcing from an instantaneous quadrupling of the CO 2 concentration, starting from the preindustrial level, is balanced by a reduction of the solar constant. Model responses to the two counteracting forcings in G1 are compared to the preindustrial climate in terms of global means and regional patterns and their robustness. While the global mean surface air temperature in G1 remains almost unchanged compared to the control simulation, the meridional temperature gradient is reduced in all models. Another robust response is the global reduction of precipitation with strong effects in particular over North and South America and northern Eurasia. In comparison to the climate response to a quadrupling of CO 2 alone, the temperature responses are small in experiment G1. Precipitation responses are, however, in many regions of comparable magnitude but globally of opposite sign.

Description: We examine the claim that in governance for solar climate engineering research, and especially field tests, there is no need for external governance beyond existing mechanisms such as peer review and environmental impact assessments that aim to assess technically defined risks to the physical environment. By drawing on the historical debate on recombinant DNA research, we show that defining risks is not a technical question but a complex process of narrative formation. Governance emerges from within, and as a response to, narratives of what is at stake in a debate. In applying this finding to the case of climate engineering, we find that the emerging narrative differs starkly from the narrative that gave meaning to rDNA technology during its formative period, with important implications for governance. While the narrative of rDNA technology was closed down to narrowly focus on technical risks, that of climate engineering continues to open up and includes social, political and ethical issues. This suggests that, in order to be legitimate, governance must take into account this broad perception of what constitutes the relevant issues and risks of climate engineering, requiring governance that goes beyond existing mechanisms that focus on technical risks. Even small-scale field tests with negligible impacts on the physical environment warrant additional governance as they raise broader concerns that go beyond the immediate impacts of individual experiments.

Description: It is often claimed that a higher ratio of natural gas to coal in our energy mix can mitigate current carbon dioxide emissions and serve as a 'bridge' to future renewable-based scenarios. This is because the carbon footprint of energy produced through the combustion of methane is about half that of energy produced from coal.

Description: The Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP) region is one of the most densely populated regions in the World, but ground-based observations of air pollutants are highly limited in this region. Here, surface ozone observations made during March 2009-June 2011 at a semi-urban site (Pantnagar; 29.0°N, 79.5°E, 231m amsl) in the IGP region are presented. Ozone mixing ratios show a daytime photochemical buildup with ozone levels sometimes as high as 100 ppbv. Seasonal variation in 24-h average ozone shows a distinct spring maximum (39.3±18.9 ppbv in May) while daytime (1130-1630h) average ozone shows an additional peak during autumn (48.7±13.8 ppbv in November). The daytime, but not daily average, observed ozone seasonality is in agreement with the space-borne observations of OMI tropospheric column NO2, TES CO (681hPa), surface ozone observations at a nearby high altitude site (Nainital) in the central Himalayas and to an extent with results from a global chemistry transport model (MATCH-MPIC). It is suggested that spring and autumn ozone maximum are mainly due to photochemistry, involving local pollutants and small-scale dynamical processes. Biomass burning activity over the northern Indian region could act as an additional source of ozone precursors during spring. The seasonal ozone photochemical buildup is estimated to be 32-41 ppbv during spring and autumn and 9-14 ppbv during August-September. A correlation analysis between ozone levels at Pantnagar and Nainital along with the mixing depth data suggests that emissions and photochemical processes in the IGP region influence the air quality of pristine Himalayan region, particularly during midday hours of spring. The evening rate of change (8.5 ppbv hr-1) is higher than the morning rate of change, which is dissimilar to those at other urban or rural sites. Ozone seasonality over the IGP region is different than that over southern India. Results from the MATCH-MPIC model capture observed ozone seasonality but overestimate ozone levels. Model simulated daytime ratios of H2O2/HNO3 are higher and suggesting that this region is in a NOx-limited regime. A chemical box model (NACR Master Mechanism) is used to further corroborate this using a set of sensitivity simulations, and to estimate the integrated net ozone production in a day (72.9 ppbv) at this site.

Description: In this study the sensitivity of the model performance of the chemistry transport model (CTM) LOTOS-EUROS to the description of the temporal variability of emissions was investigated. Currently the temporal release of anthropogenic emissions is described by European average diurnal, weekly and seasonal time profiles per sector. These default time profiles largely neglect the variation of emission strength with activity patterns, region, species, emission process and meteorology. The three sources dealt with in this study are combustion in energy and transformation industries (SNAP1), nonindustrial combustion (SNAP2) and road transport (SNAP7). First of all, the impact of neglecting the temporal emission profiles for these SNAP categories on simulated concentrations was explored. In a second step, we constructed more detailed emission time profiles for the three categories and quantified their impact on the model performance both separately as well as combined. The performance in comparison to observations for Germany was quantified for the pollutants NO2, SO2 and PM10 and compared to a simulation using the default LOTOS-EUROS emission time profiles. The LOTOS-EUROS simulations were performed for the year 2006 with a temporal resolution of 1 h and a horizontal resolution of approximately 25 × 25km2. In general the largest impact on the model performance was found when neglecting the default time profiles for the three categories. The daily average correlation coefficient for instance decreased by 0.04 (NO2), 0.11 (SO2) and 0.01 (PM10) at German urban background stations compared to the default simulation. A systematic increase in the correlation coefficient is found when using the new time profiles. The size of the increase depends on the source category, component and station. Using national profiles for road transport showed important improvements in the explained variability over the weekdays as well as the diurnal cycle for NO2. The largest impact of the SNAP1 and 2 profiles were found for SO2. When using all new time profiles simultaneously in one simulation, the daily average correlation coefficient increased by 0.05 (NO2), 0.07 (SO2) and 0.03 (PM10) at urban background stations in Germany. This exercise showed that to improve the performance of a CTM, a better representation of the distribution of anthropogenic emission in time is recommendable. This can be done by developing a dynamical emission model that takes into account regional specific factors and meteorology.

Description: This December, the 20th United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of the Parties (COP) will be held in Lima, Peru. There climate change negotiations will focus on reducing emissions of carbon dioxide, the long-lived greenhouse gas primarily responsible for anthropogenic climate change. However, on the short-term, air pollutants that also have an influence on climate, known as short-lived climate forcing pollutants (SLCPs) should also be addressed.

Description: Global-scale solar geoengineering is the deliberate modification of the climate system to offset some amount of anthropogenic climate change by reducing the amount of incident solar radiation at the surface. These changes to the planetary energy budget result in differential regional climate effects. For the first time, we quantitatively evaluate the potential for regional disparities in a multi-model context using results from a model experiment that offsets the forcing from a quadrupling of CO2 via reduction in solar irradiance. We evaluate temperature and precipitation changes in 22 geographic regions spanning most of Earthʼs continental area. Moderate amounts of solar reduction (up to 85% of the amount that returns global mean temperatures to preindustrial levels) result in regional temperature values that are closer to preindustrial levels than an un-geoengineered, high CO2 world for all regions and all models. However, in all but one model, there is at least one region for which no amount of solar reduction can restore precipitation toward its preindustrial value. For most metrics considering simultaneous changes in both variables, temperature and precipitation values in all regions are closer to the preindustrial climate for a moderate amount of solar reduction than for no solar reduction.

Description: STORY HIGHLIGHTSA little bit more than a year ago, delegates of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD or Rio+20) agreed that they would “strive to achieve a land-degradation-neutral world in the context of sustainable development.”

Description: Solar radiation management(SRM), a subset of approaches to climate engineering, aims to manipulate the global climate on a large scale. It includes techniques like spraying sulfate aerosols into the stratosphere or brightening marine clouds to reflect more sunlight back into space. In an attempt to examine the socio-political context of SRM, research frequently starts from model projections of physi cal changes in the environment. But assessing socio-political matters is complex, and while model projections may help, experiences from research on CO2-induced climate change reveal many blind spots and some unique challenges.

Description: The urban ecosystem and its ecosystem services (ESs) are managed for the wellbeing of urbandwellers. Thus, sustainable urban development depends on ESs aside economic, cultural and politicaldimensions. Soils play a central role in the urban ecosystem as they fulfill various functions andprovide several ESs. In urban areas, they are usually built to perform specific functions and providespecific ESs, e.g., (i) supporting buildings, roads and infrastructure; (ii) waste adsorption; (iii)supporting biomass production for green infrastructure and urban agriculture; (iv) filter, buffer andtransformation of contaminants; (v) regulating air and water quality; (vi) supporting nutrient cycling.In urban areas, some soils may be strongly modified by human activities, which changes theircomposition and functions, and, therefore, their ability to provide ESs. Urban soils and, moregenerally, SUITMAs (soils in urban, industrial, traffic, mining and military areas) may fulfill individuallya smaller number of ESs, smaller than those of natural soils outside of urban areas. Secondary andincidental ESs, if not disservices, may also be performed by SUITMAs.In this paper, we attempt to rank SUITMAs, according to the ESs they provide. Focus is made onthe nature of services, their importance and the number of services provided by each soil type. Workis also assigned to assess the extent to which urban soils can be deliberately altered to enhance ESs.After the tentative classification of soils, two examples will be given, i) sealed soil deemed tocomplete only few functions and provide specific services, and ii) soils of green-roofs designed toprovide a wide range of ESs, including particularly the control of the quality of air and water, thetemperature control, and the moderation of biodiversity loss.In conclusion, focus is to turn the attention towards the recognition of SUITMAs and theirmanagement as basis for the sustainable development of the urban ecosystem.

Description: A generalized synthesis of high-quality,mesoporous zeolite (e.g., MFI-type) nanocrystals ispresented, based on a biomass-derived, monolithic Ndopedcarbonaceous template. As an example, ZSM-5single crystals with desirable large-diameter (12−16 nm)intracrystalline mesopores are synthesized. The platformprovides scope to optimize template dimensions andchemistry for the synthesis of a range of micro-/mesoporous crystalline zeolites in a cost-effective andhighly flexible manner.

Description: This study presents results from systematic time-resolved experiments regarding the guest molecule geometry. The in situ observations of formation and dissociation processes of multicomponent hydrates were performed by means of Raman spectroscopy and a newly designed experimental setup including powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) whose capabilities will be presented here in more detail. Both experimental setups allow investigating hydrate kinetics as a function of pressure, temperature, and feed gas composition. The unique feature of both setups is the continuous gas flow providing a constant composition of the gas phase during the whole experiment. This is crucial for the formation of mixed hydrates formed from feed gas mixtures that contain one or more components in low concentrations. The formation of structure II hydrates including C 3H 8, iso-C 4H 10, n-C 4H 10, or neo-C 5H 12 besides CH 4 was analysed according to a multi-step model. For the initial phase it turned out that hydrates grown from the gas mixture containing 2% n-C 4H 10 and 98% CH 4 have the highest formation rate at defined p, T conditions in comparison to other hydrates formed from gas mixtures containing about 2 vol% of the above mentioned hydrocarbons besides CH 4. But the reaction mechanisms for each hydrate system emerged to be different. Furthermore, Raman and time-resolved PXRD experiments were performed to study the formation of structure H hydrates with a low-concentrated large hydrocarbon guest molecule. In case of a gas mixture containing 1% iso-C 5H 12 and 99% CH 4 the formation of a simple structure I CH 4 hydrate was observed at first. Later on, structure H CH 4 + iso-C 5H 12 hydrate was formed resulting in a coexistence of both structures.

Description: Carbon dioxide is a harmful greenhouse gas. But it is also the basic ingredient of countless chemical products. In recent years, research on the sequestration and practical use of carbon dioxide has yielded a number of important initial breakthroughs.

Description: The concerns about tax haven activity shown by leading nations originate not only from a sense of injustice caused by the fact that tax havens allow multi-billion dollar firms such as Google, Starbucks and Apple to pay only a few pennies in taxes but the notion that tax haven activity fuels international financial instability through various avenues. This contribution evaluates the risk of financial collapse or liquidity crisis to tax havens in general. It shows that tax havens are more exposed to the risk of a financial collapse than non-tax havens and that this risk positively depends on the amount of profits shifted to them. We find that the risk of a tax haven collapse is positively related to the corporate tax rate and MNCs are willing to make more daring investments in tax havens the higher corporate tax rates. However, MNCs take the risk of losing their investments due to a financial collapse into account and hence invest only a fraction of their profits in tax havens.

Description: The impact of the megacities of the world on global tropospheric ozone, and conversely, the extent to which megacities are influenced by emissions of ozone precursors from outside of the megacities is examined under the four alternative RCP ("Representative Concentration Pathway") emissions scenarios. Despite accounting for about 6% of present-day anthropogenic emissions of ozone precursor species, the contribution of emissions from megacities to global tropospheric ozone is calculated to be 0.84%. By 2100 this contribution falls to between 0.18% and 0.62% depending on the scenario, with the lower value being for the most-polluting of the four future emissions scenarios due to stringent controls on ozone precursor emissions from highly populated areas combined with a stronger tropospheric background ozone field. The higher end of this range is from the least-polluting of the four emissions scenarios, due to lower background tropospheric ozone combined with the use of a simpler downscaling methodology in the construction of the scenario, which results in higher emissions from megacities. Although the absolute impact of megacities on global ozone is small, an important result of this study is that under all future scenarios, future air quality in megacities is expected to be less influenced by local emissions within the cities, but instead more influenced by emission sources outside of the cities, with mixing ratios of background ozone projected to play an increasing role in megacity air quality throughout the 21st century. Assumptions made when downscaling the emissions scenarios onto the grids used in such modelling studies can have a large influence on these results; future generations of emissions scenarios should include spatially explicit representations or urban development suitable for air quality studies using global chemical transport models.

Description: In the 20 years since the United Nations summit on sustainable development in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, the world has become more diverse, turbulent, fast and multi-polar. Tensions between old and new forms of politics, science and media, representing the emergence of what has been framed as the knowledge democracy, have brought about new challenges for sustainability governance. However, the existing governance frameworks seem to deny this social complexity and uncertainty. They also favour centralised negotiations and institutions, view governments as exclusive decision makers, and imply hegemony of Western economic, political and cultural principles. This is also reflected in the language of sustainability governance: it is centralist and is referring to monolithic concepts (the economy, the climate, the Earth System) rather than embracing diversity and complexity. This chapter sheds light on the problematic relations between cultural diversity, sustainable development and governance. These three concepts share a normative character, which is always a good predictor of trouble if interaction takes place. It is argued that the implementation deficit of sustainable development can be traced back to three problems: a neglect of the opportunities which cultural diversity offers, an implicit preference for central top-down political solutions, and an underestimation of the ‘wickedness’ of many sustainability challenges. It is concluded that sustainability governance should be more culturally sensitive, reflexive and dynamic. This requires institutions, instruments, processes, and actor involvement based on compatibility of values and traditions rather than on commonality or integration. It also calls for situationally effective combinations of ideas from hierarchical, network and market governance. This implies an approach beyond traditional forms of governance, towards a culturally sensitive metagovernance for sustainable development, beyond disciplinary scientific research, beyond states and other existing institutional borders, beyond existing ways to measure progress, beyond linear forms of innovation, and beyond cultural integration or assimilation, towards looking for compatibility. Governance for sustainable transformations requires what we have framed in this volume as transgovernance.

Description: Klaus Töpfer, Executive Director of the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) in Potsdam, former UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme as well as Minister for the Environment in Germany, turned 75 in 2013. His outstanding achievements inspired us to assemble this volume. Klaus Töpfer has been at the forefront of sustainability efforts for several decades, with a long track record of turning vision into reality, and a firm conviction that knowledge can be a crucial building block for transitions towards sustainability. Our world is shaped, more than ever before, by human activities. The scope of technology, to systemically alter nature in ways impossible for previous generations to comprehend, requests and requires a new relationship with »planet Earth.« Such a relationship may speak, in the end, not just of profit and loss but also of a new meaning of wealth, including a sense of ethics, stewardship, and responsibility. For the time being, it seems paramount to face these new challenges, striving for new ways of understanding and, subsequently, new modes of response.

Description: Ernst Th. Rietschel - Foreword page 9Achim Steiner – Foreword page 11Falk Schmidt, Nick Nuttall - Sustainable, Transformative, Democratic: Klaus Töpfer’s Contributions for Transitions Towards Sustainability page 13Paul J. Crutzen - The Anthropocene: When Humankind Overrides Nature page 21Maheswar Rupakheti and Mark Lawrence - From Buddha Air to Dirty Air to Clean Air: The ABCs of South Asia page 29Veerabhadran Ramanathan - The Two Worlds We Inhabit: The Top Four Billion (T4B) and the Bottom Three Billion (B3B) page 41Hans Joachim Schellnhuber - Climate Change, the Monarch Butterfly, and Intergenerational Contracting page 51Reinhard F. Hüttl - Caring for the ‘Skin of the Earth’—Soils as a Critical Component of Global Development page 61Joachim von Braun - Guiding Urban–Rural Linkages Toward Sustainable Development page 75Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker - Klaus Töpfer at 75 page 97Mario Tobias - Translating Knowledge into Action: How Do Innovative Technologies Enable Sustainability? page 103Matthias Kleiner, Caroline A. Lodemann - Science in Democracy—Knowledge Exchange in an Informed Society page 111Carlo Rubbia - Innovative Scientific and Technological Developments for a Coherent Energy Policy page 123Laurence Tubiana, Andreas Rüdinger, Thomas Spencer - Evolution of the Energy Transition in Germany, France, and Europe: A Process in the Making page 127Pekka Haavisto - Global Contract for Sustainability page 141Klaus Milke and Christoph Bals - Acting–Negotiations–Alliances: The ‘Energiewende’ in Germany and its Relevance to the Great Transformation and a Global Contract page 147Karsten Sach - IRENA – A Story of Conviction, Perseverance, and Transformation page 159Manfred Konukiewitz - International Climate Finance for Developing Countries: The Green Climate Fund aims for Transformative Ambition page 173Uwe Schneidewind and Mandy Singer-Brodowski - Enabling the Great Transformation: Transdisciplinarity as Individual and Institutional Challenge page 189Günther Bachmann - Steam Engines, Renewable Energies & Co. page 201Volker Hauff - Governance: The Deficit on the Way to Sustainability page 221WAN Gang - Professor Klaus Töpfer: Promoter of Scientific Cooperation page 233Fengting Li, Jiang Wu, Dahe Jiang,Dong Li, and Sun Jie - Professor Klaus Töpfer: Leading the Way to a Sustainable Future page 237Juan Mayr Maldonado - Klaus Töpfer: A Visionary Leader, Charismatic, and Humanist page 243Massoumeh Ebtekar - Klaus Töpfer: A Pioneer for the Environmental Dimension of Dialogue among Civilizations page 253James Gustave Speth - New Economy Transformation: The Eight-fold Way page 257Timothy E. Wirth - Klaus Töpfer at 75: Remarks of the Honoroble Timothy E. Wirth page 263Ralf Fücks - End or Beginning? page 271Angelika Zahrnt - On the Recapturing of Alternatives page 275Claus Leggewie - Transnational Citizenship. Ideals and European Citizenship: Legal and Cultural Dimensions page 285Ulrich Beck - Transformations of the Social and Political: Beyond Methodological Nationalism page 297Authors page 309

Description: Highly porous N-doped carbon materials with apparent surface areas in the 1300-2400 m2 g-1 range and pore volumes up to 1.2 cm 3 g-1 have been synthesized from hydrothermal carbons obtained from mixtures of algae and glucose. The porosity of these materials is made up of uniform micropores, most of them having sizes 〈1 nm. Moreover, they have N contents in the 1.1-4.7 wt% range, and the heteroatom is mainly a pyridone-type structure. These microporous carbons present unprecedented large CO2 capture capacities, up to 7.4 mmol g-1 (1 bar, 0 °C). The importance of the pore size on the CO2 capture capacity of microporous carbon materials is clearly demonstrated. Indeed, a good correlation between the CO2 capture capacity at sub-atmospheric pressure and the volume of narrow micropores is observed. The results suggest that pyridinic-N, pyridonic/pyrrolic-N and quaternary-N do not contribute significantly to the CO2 adsorption capacity, owing probably to their low basicity in comparison with amines. These findings will help the design of high-performance CO2 capture sorbents.

Description: It seems intuitive to identify boundaries of an earth system which is increasingly threatened by human activities. Being aware of and hence studying boundaries may be necessary for effective governance of sustainable development. Can the planetary boundaries function as useful ‘warning signs’ in this respect? The answer presented in the article is: yes; but. It is argued that these boundaries cannot be described exclusively by scientific knowledge-claims. They have to be identified by science-society or transdisciplinary deliberations. The discussion of governance challenges related to the concept concludes with two main recommendations: to better institutionalise integrative transdisciplinary assessment processes along the lines of the interconnected nature of the planetary boundaries, and to foster cross-sectoral linkages in order to institutionalise more integrative and yet context sensitive governance arrangements. These insights are briefly confronted with options for institutional reform in the context of the Rio + 20 process. If humankind will not manage a transition towards sustainability, its ‘safe operating space’ continues shrinking. Governance arrangements for such ‘systems at risk’ may then be, first, more ‘forceful’ and, second, may run counter to our understanding of ‘open societies’. It is not very realistic that the world is prepared to achieve the first, and it is not desirable to get the effects of the latter. Scholars and practitioners of sustainability may find this a convincing argument to act now.

Description: New multiproxy marine data of the Eemian interglacial (MIS5e) from the Norwegian Sea manifest a cold event with near-glacial surface ocean summer temperatures (3-4 °C). This mid-Eemian cooling divided the otherwise relatively warm interglacial climate and was associated with widespread expansions of winter sea-ice and polar water masses due to changes in atmospheric circulation and ocean stability. While the data also verify a late rather than early last interglacial warm peak, which is in general disharmony with northern hemisphere insolation maximum and the regional climatic progression of the early Holocene, the cold event itself was likely instrumental for delaying the last interglacial climate development in the Polar North when compared with regions farther south. Such a 'climatic decoupling' of the Polar region may bear profound implications for the employment of Eemian conditions to help evaluate the present and future state of the Arctic cryosphere during a warming interglacial.

Description: Possible feedback effects between aeolian dust, climate and ice sheets are studied for the first time with an Earth system model of intermediate complexity over the late Pleistocene period. Correlations between climate and dust deposition records suggest that aeolian dust potentially plays an important role for the evolution of glacial cycles. Here climatic effects from the dust direct radiative forcing (DRF) caused by absorption and scattering of solar radiation are investigated. Key elements controlling the dust DRF are the atmospheric dust distribution and the absorption-scattering efficiency of dust aerosols. Effective physical parameters in the description of these elements are varied within uncertainty ranges known from available data and detailed model studies. Although the parameters can be reasonably constrained, the simulated dust DRF spans a~wide uncertainty range related to the strong nonlinearity of the Earth system. In our simulations, the dust DRF is highly localized. Medium-range parameters result in negative DRF of several watts per square metre in regions close to major dust sources and negligible values elsewhere. In the case of high absorption efficiency, the local dust DRF can reach positive values and the global mean DRF can be insignificantly small. In the case of low absorption efficiency, the dust DRF can produce a significant global cooling in glacial periods, which leads to a doubling of the maximum glacial ice volume relative to the case with small dust DRF. DRF-induced temperature and precipitation changes can either be attenuated or amplified through a feedback loop involving the dust cycle. The sensitivity experiments suggest that depending on dust optical parameters, dust DRF has the potential to either damp or reinforce glacial–interglacial climate changes.

Description: Truth is always concrete, as are emergencies. If truth and reliability of good decisions is what, in general, nourishes change and the readiness of people to trust in transformation, emergency response should be at the heart of this. Responding to emergency situations is about immediate decisions and action. If carried out incorrectly or badly performed, it not only fails in substance, but is likely to destroy and delegitimise any further attempts to transform constraints and contingencies which have caused the emergency situation in the first place. Neither the recent debates on international environmental governance nor those focusing on the multilateral governance framework for sustainable development, emphasise the issue of emergency response. This reluctance is most likely due to the fact that dealing with emergency control is still regarded as a strictly national task. This article believes that this approach is inadequate. It argues that the character of emergencies is changing. Whereas conventional emergencies are mostly local, it is clear that limited and calculable nuclear accidents and the adverse effects of climate change, demonstrate that the modern generation of emergencies has the potential to surpass geographic limits, national borders and to be long term. Therefore, this article argues that emergency control may have an important role in clustering change processes and transition efforts, at least under certain conditions and whilst framed by the concept of transgovernance.

Description: Emissions of greenhouse gases and air pollutants from megacities impact the climate. The long-lived greenhouse gases CO 2, CH 4 and N 2O as well as climate-active pollutants such as NO x, VOC and particulate matter (PM) are all emitted from megacities. NO x and VOC contribute to tropospheric ozone formation and affect the lifetime of long-lived greenhouse gases. Anthropogenic aerosols include sulphate, black carbon (BC) and particulate organic matter (POM). Aerosols impact climate directly (absorption, backscattering) and also have indirect (cloud) effects. We assess the climate impact of megacity emissions with the Met Office Hadley Centre Earth System Model HadGEM2 applying an "annihilation" scenario in which the emissions at megacities are entirely removed. Generally, the contribution of megacities to global pollutant emissions is on the order of 2-5% of the total global annual anthropogenic base emission flux. The impact of megacity climate-active pollutants is assessed via an annual mean top-of-atmosphere direct radiative forcing (AMTOA-DRF) from long-lived GHG as well as ozone, methane and aerosols. In this simulations the long-lived component (CO 2, CH 4 and N 2O) contributes a positive TOA-DRF of +120.0, +28.4 and +3.3mWm -2, respectively, under present-day conditions. Climate-active pollutants (NO x, VOC) contribute an AMTOA-DRF of +5.7±0.02mWm -2 from an increase in the ozone burden -1.9±0.04mWm -2, -6.1±0.21mWm -2 from the aerosol AMTOA-DRF in the short-wave spectrum and +1.5±0.01mWm -2 from aerosol in the long-wave spectrum. The combined AMTOA-DRF from all climate-active pollutants is slightly negative at -0.8±0.24mWm -2 and the total AMTOA-DRF amounts to +150.9±0.24mWm -2. Under future conditions (2050s) the total AMTOA-DRF from long-lived GHG is found to profoundly increase to +322.6mWm -2 while the total AMTOA-DRF from climate-active pollutants turns positive and decreases slightly to +0.5±0.09mWm -2 yielding a combined AMTOA-DRF of +323.1±0.09mWm -2 in the future. It is apparent that under the given emission scenarios the radiative forcing from long-lived GHG, particularly CO 2, by far dominates the impact of megacities on climate.

Description: In this chapter, the Summary and Recommendations are included of the first report of the TransGov project of IASS, Potsdam, authored by Roeland J. in ’t Veld. For this report the contributions to this volume were used as source of inspiration.

Description: Berlin may not be the Netherlands, but there is definitely a fair amount of bicycling infrastructure throughout the city. And if you're biking in Berlin you're not alone on the road with only cars for company either. The debate about which cities are the best for biking aside, I enjoy biking, and this summer I biked home from work at least once a week. For me, this meant a journey of roughly 30 km and just under two hours depending on traffic, traffic lights, and how much energy I had at the end of the work day.

Description: STORY HIGHLIGHTSManaging soils in a sustainable way is essential in the fight against hunger.This is particularly true with regard to the poorest people in the world, as their survival often hinges on the soils that are most severely degraded.But arable land is very limited.

Description: The chapter argues for a lecture of the notion of development as strongly linked to the uneven distribution of material and non-material sources of power among groups. It thus analyses the rise of a public environmentalist awareness in the late twentieth century as a challenge to the capitalist pattern of production and consumption. Finally, the chapter aims to shed some light on the process of mainstreaming these claims by subsuming them within the western model of societal transformation, under the new, catchy label of sustainable development. Pressing for institutional solutions to environmental depletion has meant to further spread the sustainability goal worldwide. On the other hand, it has also implied a kind of betrayal of the truly transformative instances of many social movements and local communities, which were seeking for a revolutionary, rather than reformative, path to societal change.

Description: In the late 1960s a debate about the long-term feasibility and desirability of economic growth as a one-size-fits-all economic policy emerged. It was argued that economic growth was one of the underlying causes of ecological and social problems faced by humanity. The issue remained strongly disputed until the inception of the Sustainable Development discourse by which the debate was politically settled. Nevertheless, given that many ecological and social problems remain unsolved and some have become even more severe, there are renewed calls for the abandoning of the economic growth commitment, particularly in already affluent countries. This chapter summarises the growth debate hitherto and examines two alternatives, the steady-state economy proposed by Herman Daly and economic de-growth proposed by Serge Latouche. In spite of recent disputes between the Anglo-Saxon steady-state school and the emerging continental de-growth school, it is argued, consistent with recent contributions on the issue, that steady-state and de-growth are not mutually exclusive but inevitably complements. The steady-state has the advantage of comprehensive theoretical elaboration, while de-growth has the advantage of an attractive political slogan which has re-opened the debate on the issue. Latouche is also a social thinker who gives a voice to the critiques of economic growth contained in the notion of development from outside Europe and the United States. The steady-state economy, and de-growth are held by some analysts to be beyond what is politically feasible. Although this argument is valid, it fails to recognise that past desirable societal changes were made possible through reflexive societal processes conducive to collective action and institutional change. It is concluded that the debate must ultimately rest in the physical quantities that a given economy needs for the ‘good life’ in the long run, how to decide on these quantities, how to achieve them, and how to maintain an approximate global steady-state. Finally, some recommendations for further research along with some reflections on the potential role of scholars are provided.

Description: Since the 1970s, climate change has dominated the international scientific and political agenda. In particular, the foundation of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change at the end of the 1980s played a major role for the further enhancement of efforts in the field of climate change sciences. However, to understand the interaction of the worldwide coordination of climate change sciences as well as the role of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and its consequences, it is worthwhile to take a look at the self-conception of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's tasks and work. This paper gives an idea of the history of international climate change science, its representation in public discourse and the role of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change by comprehensively illustrating its tasks, organization and self-image. Furthermore, the article tries to argue that the hitherto accepted concept of science followed within this body fails to integrate the idea of scientific ethics. It can be concluded that the conception of science represented by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has heavily influenced worldwide attention to climate change, its becoming part of the political agenda as well as the ethical consequences.